Page 24 of Her Surprise Protector
“You, uh- you still want to swim, right?” Elena asked after a moment.
“Yeah.”
“You get up first?” Her limp hand twitched a single finger against my side.
“Um…ladies first.”
Chapter Ten
Elena
As gently as I could, I closed the door behind me, listening for any signs of wakefulness inside. Nothing. After a long day of play, Bree was fast asleep.
Breathing a sigh, I walked softly back to the kitchen. It might have been Bree’s bedtime now, but mine would have to wait until I got a few things around the house done. Dishes crowded the sink, and toys littered the living room floor, the usual. I hadn’t had time for cleaning over the past few days. We had been working overtime at the office on a new case.
Since our unforgettable evening on the beach a few weeks ago, my time with Riker had been limited. I didn’t know how he managed to run his company and still message me back when I could hardly manage to work as a legal aide and…oh. Being a single mother also subtracted heavily from my free time. I often had to keep an eye on Bree, not my phone.
Thinking about Bree and Riker reminded me of the two of them together, and a fond little smile tugged at my lips. Nothing could possibly be more adorable than muscular, intense Riker holding Bree to his side, effortlessly carrying the little girl around the house and never seeming to tire of it. Bree never tired of it either. She loved when he picked her up and gave her a taller view of the world. It made my job easy and gave my own arms a much-needed break.
I placed the last dish in the drying rack, avoiding starting the dishwasher. I certainly didn’t want to wake Bree. A crying toddler in the middle of the night was not what I needed before a busy day at work.
Next was the living room. I walked around, stooping once, twice, three times to pick up toys, depositing them in the toy box. Straightening cracked my back, and I took a moment to stretch out my shoulders as well. Speaking of straightening, the pillows on the couch had somehow ended up all over the room. So, I fixed those too.
I checked the front and back door locks then flipped off the light switch in the kitchen before heading to my room. I had expected pitch darkness and was prepared to find my way with the flashlight on my phone, but there was no need. Silvery moonlight poured in through the open curtains of the window next to the front door, illuminating the house.
I stopped with a hand on the wall of the hallway, staring down that patch of moonlight.I should go pull the curtains closed…but I was so sleepy all of a sudden. “Fine,” I muttered to no one in particular, starting toward the window.
A shadow blocked out the moon, flickering across the front windows and vanishing as fast as it had appeared. My feet stopped dead, both out of worry I would trip over something during the brief second of darkness and fear of whatever had made that shadow. For a few moments, I couldn’t move. I could only stare at the window and wait for the shadow to come back.
Nothing happened after minutes of standing just at the edge of the moonlit squares on the floor, and finally, I gathered the courage to circumvent the traitorous light and close the curtains. While leaning my cheek against the wall beside the window frame, my heart was pounding as I peered into the moonlit night. Only my car and the waving grasses of the dunes presented themselves.
Maybe it was nothing,I decided after a moment.A bat. Or clouds over the moon, or something.Each explanation I offered myself was encouraging. I managed to tear away from the window and traversed the darkened hallway to my bedroom. A brief pause to crack open Bree’s door told me she was still sleeping soundly and her curtains were tightly closed.
Suddenly, I wanted to laugh at myself. Of course, that private security detail from Riker’s company was still monitoring my house, meaning that if the shadow had been anything important, the “man in the van” would have seen it and taken action. If security wasn’t worried and hadn’t come to check on things, I didn’t need to be worried either.
Even though I knew friendly eyes were watching out for me, it took a while to fall asleep. In the morning, I awoke groggy and very aware that I had gotten less sleep than normal. But I dragged myself out of bed without hitting snooze, so I had plenty of time to get Bree up and ready.
Bree’s favorite meal was breakfast, so I left her alone with the confidence that she would eat her sliced fruit and grabbed the full bag in the kitchen trash can. Unlocking the back door, I stepped out. Something crackled under my foot, and I figured a bit of wax paper had fallen out of the bag or something.I’ll toss the trash in the can and come back for it.
I did, but it wasn’t wax paper. It was a meticulously-folded square of paper, and I didn’t need to look any closer to know exactly what it was because I had seen ones like it before.
For a moment, I just stared at the folded note, tears burning in the back of my eyes until they crept to the front and trickled down my cheeks. Why couldn’t Oscar just leave us alone?
I didn’t know if I wanted to read the note, so I picked it up and stuffed it into my handbag. I dropped Bree off safely at the daycare, parked my car at work and headed inside, finding myself with about fifteen minutes until I needed to begin my workday.
Heart heavy but aware that I needed to know what it said, I took the note out of my purse and unfolded it slowly - not as bad as I expected, honestly, but not good either. Oscar was getting more…unpredictable. The note mixed apologies and professions of love with angry insults and worrying threats of what would happen if I ignored him. Both issues scared me equally. What if I unblocked him on my phone and called him, would that help? Maybe if I talked to Oscar, he would think I wanted to work things out or give him a chance, and he would stop stalking me.
I crumbled up the note and threw it into the trash can as hard as I could.That wouldn’t work, Elena. That’ll just make Oscar more eager and give him hope.
Unlike the previous two days, today flew past with a speed that frightened me as much as Oscar did. It was like time was working with him, trying to hurry me along until I had to pick up Bree and go home where he could haunt my every move.
Finally, at lunchtime, I couldn’t take it anymore. I found an empty office and called Riker.
“Hey, Elena,” he answered after a single ring, sounding a little surprised. “Aren’t you at work?”
“Yeah. But, uh…Oscar came back last night-”
“I know,” Riker interjected.
